Institutional Racism Essay

1032 words - 5 pages

Institutional Racism

Abstract
Many people associate racism with bigoted individuals and radical groups on the borders of society. Shirley Better argues that racism is much larger than negative attitudes and that it touches the very core of our lives as Americans. In this paper we will discuss the model of institutional racism and different aspects of it.
Introduction
Institutional racism is a special form of racism. It received its name because it occurs in institutions, such as governmental and public organizations, commercial companies, educational establishments, etc. As opposed to individual racism, or some other forms of racism, institutional racism is unique in ...view middle of the document...

We will discuss each or these key components.
There is not a better example for economic privilege than enslavement of African in America. The primary motive was profit. In south the growing of tobacco required a large number of filed workers so enslavement of the large number of Africans made it possible to cultivate more land and increase the profit for plantation owners. The African slave trade can be the first example of globalization. On the other hand the negative attitudes and stereotyping of a Africans were the methods used to justify and maintain the slave trade business. Another example of racism being used for economic privilege can be seen in the plight of Indian tribes. Indians from 1600s were forced to leave their land so there will be more land available for Europeans to farm and over time more and more land was needed and they decide to force the Native Americans to leave their land. Till this day we can see this type of institutional racism. One of the examples that we can see in our society is two-tier system of labor which is a type of payroll system in which one group of workers receives lower wages and/or employee benefits than another.
The other type of institutional racism is Social Privilege. This ideology can trace back to the colonies when whites immigrants justified their right to control the land and enforce their lifestyle over the Native American. Euro-Americans have developed the idea that they are better because they are white and therefore their lives should be richer than minorities and no minority should be better than they.
Finally that last type of institutional racism is Psychic Reward. By definition Psychic Reward relates to satisfaction one experiences emotionally and spiritually from holding a favored position(Better 2008). This helped whites in general and poor whites in particular to feel better of being white and this was a good alternation for their low income and bad financial situations. In my idea this is the hardest part to make someone give up the position that they like, enjoy and they feel superiority. This is one of the obvious racism that we...

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, including power, which regularly and systematically advantages some ethnic and racial groups and disadvantages others. It operates through key institutions: organised social arrangements through which social goods and services are distributed (Chambers and Pettman, 1986: 7).The routine nature of much institutional racism is grounded on commonsense understandings of group differences and the way things are. These meanings and beliefs are called